As railroad lines are absorbed, abandoned, and disappear, there are those
who ensure that the history of Kansas railroads is not forgotten. Railroad
history artist Michael Boss is working to document and preserve the railroad
history of western Kansas. Having lived most of his life in Graham County,
he has a special interest in that section of the Plainville Branch. The
historic depots of Graham County (Penokee, Morland, Hill City and Bogue)
as well as other depots and railroad history along the Plainville Branch
are featured in a series of paintings done by Boss.

The Plainville Branch was a prominent rail line in central and northwestern
Kansas and important to the economic development of the region. It was
originally created for servicing large Kansas farming and stockyard centers
in remote areas of Kansas. The new line out of Salina would ship fuel (coal),
building materials and other merchandise into remote areas of Kansas, and
ship agricultural and livestock products out of those areas. In addition,
the railroad stockholders fostered the economic development of western
Kansas by encouraging people to relocate to towns along the line - incentive
being that the cost of land in western Kansas was 1/10th of what if cost
in the eastern part of the state.

In 1886, the Salina, Lincoln and Western Railway Company began construction
on the first section of an 108 mile long track running north westward from
Salina to five miles west of Plainville. About fifteen towns located along
the line and the train would stop in each of them.
Other railroad companies were quickly becoming established in western Kansas.
The Oakley and Colby Railroad built a 21 mile long stretch of track north
westward from Oakley to Colby in the same year the S.L.&W. opened.
Two years later, in 1888, the Lincoln and Colorado Railway company connected
the two lines with a 96 mile stretch of track. When all three railroad
lines were connected and completed, a golden spike ceremony was held in
celebration of the accomplishment.
Plainville was established as the division point between Salina and Colby,
and the three lines operated together until the 1890s. Ten year government
loan notes became due and the entire 225 mile long line became subject
to foreclosure. In October, 1898 Union Pacific Railroad assumed ownership
of all three railroad lines which created U.P.'s longest branch line.

The line was in full operation until a few years ago including the awesome
sight of hundreds of westbound empty coal and grain hoppers pulled by SD-60s
and DASH 8 engines. After damage to track located between Salina and Plainville
during the floods of 1993, U.P.R.R. determined that rebuilding that section
of the branch line would not be cost effective. The section was dismantled
in 1995 and the only remaining part of the line was from Plainville to
Colby and Oakley until it too was dismantled in 1998.

Much of the history of western Kansas is closely tied to the development
of the Plainville Branch Line. The railroads kept the interior of Kansas
connected to the rest of the country. The railroad was symbolic of advancing
technology, romance and wealth. Many western Kansans fondly revere the
Plainville Branch and the memories it spawned. Part of the Plainville Branch's
beloved progeny was the "Jitney."

"The
Jitney: Penokee, Kansas 1957"

One
of Mike Boss' Graham County artworks is called "The Jitney: Penokee, Kansas
1957". Pictured is a Pullman motorcar stopped at the Penokee Union Pacific
depot on its daily route from Oakley to Plainville.
The term "jitney" is defined as an American colloquialism meaning "a motor
vehicle that carries passengers for a small fare." Union Pacific first
exhibited the 74 passenger motorcar and its accompanying baggage/freight
car at Penokee, Kansas in Nov. 28, 1928. Soon thereafter, the "Jitneys"
were hard at work on the Plainville Branch. Throughout their 30 years of
operation on the line, two of the motorcars kept the same train numbers:
533 westbound and 534 eastbound. Automobiles eventually became a more popular
mode of travel and eventually displaced the passenger rail service. May
31, 1958 was the last day of service between Oakley and Salina for the
venerable "Jitneys."
Penokee's (originally named Reford) first depot was destroyed by a fire
that resulted from being struck by lightning. During the blaze, the faithful
telegraph agent was at his post frantically notifying headquarters that
his depot was burning.

The Penokee
Depot at Ellis Kansas

The replacement depot,
constructed in 1916, is a rare "pagoda" style building. It was moved by
Hays businessman Richard Schmidt in 1994 to the grounds of the Ellis Railroad
Museum where preservation and restoration of the building and its furnishings
are progressing with the help of the Kansas Pacific Railway Association.

Ghost
RAILROADS of Kansas

This wintery cover painting on this issue of Ghost Railroads of Kansas
is another Mike Boss work showing the original Lincoln and Colorado Morland
depot in 1908, with westbound freight pulled by 827. The 4-4-0 American
engine was built in 1887 by Union Pacific and was most known for pulling
the $30,000 "Pomeroy Special" (a gigantic load of building supplies) to
Hill City in 1888. The mill shown to the left was called the Morland Milling
and Grain Co. Neither the mill nor the original depot are in existence
today. On February 18, 1909 a fire spread from the mill and elevator and
ultimately consumed the depot.

The
Plainville Branch was an economic link to larger shipping centers. The
cattle ranches of western Kansas depended on it. Every Saturday for decades,
the "Cattleman's Special," train number 190, departed Colby for Salina.
All along the Plainville Branch the train picked up preloaded cattle cars
and transported them, via Salina, to Kansas City for Monday morning trade.

"The
Cattlemen's Special, Morland, Kansas 1927"

Mike
Boss' painting "The Cattlemen's Special, Morland, Kansas 1927" shows us
a night of the new moon where a 400 class steam engine backs into the siding
to pick up a livestock shipment. The setting and year for the painting
was suggested by the artist's father, Warren Boss, who in the 1920s rode
that train to Kansas City on numerous occasions.
The "Special" was most often headed up by 400 Class 2-8-0 Consolidations.
Consolidation engines numbers 486 and 489 were the mainstays on the branch
line. They were impressive engines to see puffing along the Kansas landscape.
Engine 489, which was manufactured by Baldwin in 1903, had 57 inch driving
wheels and a 6,000 gallon capacity tender.
The Morland depot featured in this Boss's artwork is the depot that was
rebuilt in 1909. Its exterior is currently being restored by the Morland
community and may eventually be listed in the register of Kansas historic
buildings. The Morland depot will be painted in the original standard Union
Pacific colors of colonial yellow and light brown.

Bogue,
Kansas 1925

An original painting by Boss called "Bogue, Kansas: 1925" shows a view
looking east down a row of box cars toward sunset with a 400 class engine
working the yard. A full moon rising foretells a clear, cold, Kansas night.
The small town of Bogue seemed to have a share of newsworthy moments at
its depot as well as U.P. gossip. In April of 1904 a local man believed
that the woman he saw through the Bogue depot window was the same person
responsible for persuading his wife to leave him. In his rage he fired
shots through and into the depot waiting room, hitting the woman and killing
her.
During the days when Bogue was new and developing, a hopeful, but naive
small town newspaper editor of the Bogue Signal boasted that,
"The U.P.R.R. Co. knows a good thing when it sees it. It has reserved six
lots in block 49 in the City of Bogue on which it intends to erect a large
building in the spring. It is thought that the company will move it's headquarters
from Omaha to this place and that the building is for that purpose." -
Feb 7, 1889
"The very latest tip on the intention of the R.R. officials was obtained
from reliable sources. Within the next 60 days, the ground will be broken
for a 19-stall roundhouse at Bogue." - April 25, 1889
Bogue never had a roundhouse, nor is it particularly conceivable that U.P.
would ever consider moving its Nebraska headquarters from the main line
to a small town on a branch line. Bogue did however gets it's own depot.
Many years later, the building was taken out of service and sold. It has
been relocated to private property south of the town. The building is maintained
by its present owner.

Hill
City Depot

Boss did a memorial piece for the Hill City depot. It shows the depot
at sunrise, during the post WWII era, as a west bound Consolidated with
freight pulls into town to unload.
A friendly, informal relationship with the railroad crews was relatively
unheard of on the main lines, but many people in small towns on this branch
line had a cordial and personal relationship with the railroad crews. Buck's
Grill was a well known 24-hour restaurant located in Hill City about a
mile from the tracks. During the 1950's fully loaded trains would pull
into town about 2 a.m. Upon arriving the engineer would lay on the
whistle as a signal for the merchants to come unload the train,
and for Buck to come pick up the railroad crew. If Buck didn't show up,
the local police did.
Hill City's depot was in operation for about 100 years (from 1888 to about
1988). After being taken out of service, the depot was purchased and torn
down around 1990. The timber was used by the owner to repair of other buildings.
With the exception of the Hill City depot, all of the depots built on the
Graham County portion of the line still exist. When originally constructed,
the first four depots (Bogue, Hill City, Reford (Penokee) and Morland)
were built by Lincoln and Colorado. The replacement depots at Morland and
Penokee were built by Union Pacific.
As railroad lines are absorbed, abandoned and disappear, there are those
who insure that the history of Kansas railroads is not forgotten.
Mike Boss's artwork is working to document and preserve that railroad history
of western Kansas for us all.

Kansas
artist Michael Boss is a resident of Hill City, Kansas. He has been professionally
creating aviation, space and railroad history for over twenty years. He
attended Southern Illinois University and Kansas State University but attributes
most of his art training to the tutelage of renowned commercial illustrator
and fine artist Jack Leynnwood. Michael Boss' art is in many private, corporate
and public collections including the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in
Tucson, Az., Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C.
and Union Pacific Railroad, Omaha, Nebraska.